The classic PC games market is “in a sorry state,” according to GOG, a DRM-free and classically minded store. Small games that are currently not selling are abandoned and compatibility issues arise as technology advances or as unique development ideas age like milk.
Classic games make up just 20 percent of GOG's catalog, and the company hasn't called itself “Good Old Games” in 12 years. And yet, today GOG announces that it is making “a significant resource commitment” to a new GOG Preservation Program. It starts with 100 games for which GOG's own developers are working to create current and future compatibility, keeping them DRM-free and providing ongoing technical support, as well as giving them the “Good Old Game: Preserved by GOG” seal.
GOG won't change its mission of offering a DRM-free alternative to Steam, Epic, and other PC stores, at least not entirely. But he's clearly excited about a new approach that goes back to his original name, inspired in part by his work on Alpha Protocol.
“We believe we can have a significant impact on the classics industry by focusing our resources on it and creating superior products,” writes Arthur Dejardin, director of sales marketing at GOG. “If we wanted to spread the DRM-free gospel by focusing on getting new AAA games on GOG, we would make little progress with the same amount of effort and money (we've been testing various versions of that for the last 5 years).”
GOG Preservation Program launch video.
Test knights, demons and zombies
What kind of games? Scanning the list of good old games, most of them are, by all indications, both good and old. Personally, I'm glad to see irregular alliance games, System crash 2, Warcraft I and II, Dungeon Guardian Gold and theme park, SimCity 3000 unlimited, and the wing commander series (particularly, personally, Privateer). Most of them, understandably, are Windows-only, although Mac support extends to 34 titles so far, and Linux can gain many more through Proton support, beyond the 19 native titles to date.